Safari 4 - the end of the browser
A long long time ago I wrote an article here on this very blog claiming that the browser is not the future of the internet. I was saying that modern webpages provide services and that services are best served with their own interface, with their own usability and that most of the time the browser as the interface framework is not the best presentational model. Well in a stunning move two years after I wrote this apple is moving us closer to this reality with Safari 4. As I read today Safari 4 can save a webapplication as its own application without the need of the traditional browser interface around it. Now technology wise this is nothing so new for Apple as Dashboard is essentially doing that since its introduction - but making this way accessing webapps mainstream is sure dropping like a bomb. For the reference I also read that Mozilla is providing such a service already - but I have never found this information before nor have I found an easy to use button for the user to make a webpage an application. Now I can not say how glad I am to be freed from the square box browser interface soon and write apps for clients that really interface them with us - it brings usability to a much higher level. It makes representation of data that more focused. I will have a test of this technology soon and report how it went later on - surely exiting and I predict this will change the way we see the web rather sooner then later.